Iowa mom left 4 young kids home alone and went to Europe on vacation, police say

JOHNSTON, Iowa – An Iowa mother faces multiple charges allegedly leaving her four children at home while she traveled to Germany, according to WHO.

Johnston police were called to 30-year-old Erin Lee Macke’s home on September 21st on a child welfare check. When they arrived they found four children including two 12-year-olds, a 7-year-old and a 6-year-old. Police say that Macke had left the country the day before and was en route to Germany. She wasn’t planning to return home until October 1st.

Police say Macke made no arrangements for supervision of the children while she was away. They contacted her in Germany and ordered her to return home.

When she arrived back in Iowa on Wednesday, police took her into custody. Macke was charged with four counts of child endangerment and an additional count of making a firearm available to a person under the age of 21.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” Johnston Lt. Tyler Tompkins told KCCI. “We have situations where parents go next door or parents may go out for the night, and while that’s not advisable either depending on the age of the children, obviously leaving the country is a totally different situation. This, where a parent has left the country and left the kids home alone, I’ve never heard of it before.”

Tompkins said that after all of her baby sitter options fell through, she left the two younger kids in the care of the 12-year-olds.